“We are joining a growing number of medical professionals, labor organizations, law enforcement authorities, local municipalities, and approximately 56 percent of the public, in saying that it is time to decriminalize the use of marijuana,” State NAACP President Alice Huffman said in a news release. “There is a strong racial component that must be considered when we investigate how the marijuana laws are applied to people of color.”

The Drug Policy Alliance will join the NAACP and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition at tomorrow’s news conference to release a report, “Targeting Blacks for Marijuana,” based on marijuana possession arrests of African Americans in California’s 25 largest counties. The alliance says the report shows African Americans are arrested for marijuana possession at higher rates than whites – at double, triple or even quadruple the rate of whites – even though the U.S. government studies consistently find that young blacks use marijuana at lower rates than young whites.

“We have empirical proof that the application of the marijuana laws has been unfairly applied to our young people of color,” Huffman said. “Justice is the quality of being just and fair and these laws have been neither just nor fair.”

“We, at the California NAACP advocate that what’s just is justice for us. Under the prophetic words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ It is our mission to eradicate injustice and continue the fight for civil rights and social justice wherever and whenever we can.”

One in 100 adults in the United States are in prison, most of them because of non-violent drug charges. That percentage increases to an astounding 1 in 15 for African-Americans, yet drug use in this community is lower than those of whites.

Clearly, laws that so unfairly targets one segment of the population must be discredited and abandoned. The N.A.A.C.P. made the right move.

M

This is a courageous position by a visionary leader.

There are more African Americans under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.

Do you have any figures on how many blacks are imprisoned for crack cocaine offenses and how many for weed?

Allen Payton

As a member of the East County Branch of the NAACP, I want to say this is a big mistake. With the negative impacts from marijuana on a person’s education this does nothing to advance the cause of African-Americans.
If it’s an equal application of the marijuana laws, then fine, let’s fight that – that’s a equal justice issue. But to legalize its use is not the solution.

wayneflo

@Allen Payton

Cannabis should be legalized because it’s SAFER than alcohol.

Every objective study concludes it is far less toxic and far less intoxicating. Alcohol is also physically addictive, cannabis is not.

Alcohol use fuels aggressive behavior and violence, including domestic abuse, assaults and vandalism. Cannabis use does not.

Legalizing cannabis will severely shrink the violent cartels and street gangs by wiping out over 60% of their profit. It will take cannabis out of the hands of criminals and put it in a well-regulated market only available to adults.

Cannabis sales will generate $1.4B/yr in taxes, and allow law enforcement to focus on real crime. The fruitless drug war has wasted $1 trillion.

Cannabis is SAFER than alcohol! Let people choose the SAFER drug for relaxation and recreation.

Conservative Christian

Fellow readers, if you’d like to VOTE on any upcoming related opportunities on this, here are the links to REGISTER TO VOTE in a few of the states with mj laws on the ballot in November. And while we’re talking, tell people to be on the watch for the “October Surprise”, some trumped-up bad “news” about marijuana that will be intended to persuade voters at the last minute. Register to VOTE and tell your friends to not fall for the “October Surprise!”

(Remove the spaces in the w w w portions of the link and then paste the link into your browser)

ARIZONA citizens can register to vote at http://w w w .azsos.gov/election/voterregistration.htm
Registration for the November 2, 2010 election appears to be open until October 3, 2010.

CALIFORNIA citizens can register to vote athttps://w w w .sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform/ Just fill out the form and mail it in!
Registration for the November 2, 2010 election appears to be open until October 17, 2010.

COLRADO citizens can register to vote at http://w w w .sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/ . There’s a link in the “Voter Information” section. Registration for the November 2, 2010 election appears to be open until October 1, 2010.

GEORGIA citizens can register to vote athttp://w w w .sos.georgia.gov/elections/voter_registration/voter_reg_app.htm
Registration for the November 2, 2010 election appears to be open until October 4, 2010.

KANSAS citizens can register to vote athttps://w w w .kdor.org/voterregistration/Default.aspx
Registration for the November 2, 2010 election appears to be open until October 16 or 17, 2010.

MAINE citizens have to register in person; you can read about it at http://w w w .maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/voterguide.html
In Maine, you can apparently register all the way up until election day, so Maine citizens, let’s turn out to vote!

MICHIGAN citizens can register to vote athttp://w w w .michigan.gov/sos/0,1607,7-127-50050_50420-175878–,00.html
Registration for the November 2, 2010 election appears to be open until October 1, 2010.

MINNESOTA citizens can register to vote at http://w w w .sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=204
Registration for the November 2, 2010 election appears to be open until October 10, 2010.

MONTANA citizens can check their registration status and find other information at https://app.mt.gov/voterinfo/ or get the voter registration form at http://w w w .co.yellowstone.mt.gov/elections/ (sorry, I couldn’t find a state-wide site for this. I hope this gives you a good starting point, Montana!)

NORTH CAROLINA citizens can register to vote athttp://w w w .sboe.state.nc.us/content.aspx?id=23
Registration for the November 2, 2010 election appears to be open until October 7, 2010.

OREGON citizens can register online athttp://w w w .sos.state.or.us/elections/votreg/vreg.htm
Registration for the November 2, 2010 election appears to be open until October 16.

SOUTH DAKOTA citizens can get the voter registration form online athttp://w w w .sdsos.gov/electionsvoteregistration/registrationvoting.shtm
Registration for the November 2, 2010 election appears to be open until October 10.

WASHINGTON citizens can register online here. Registration for the November 2, 2010 election appears to be open until October 4, 2010.

Other states: Google your State name and the phrase “voter registration” to find out how to REGISTER TODAY so you can VOTE in NOVEMBER

I may be a day or two off on some of the registration dates, so (1) get this done early and (2) even if you get this info on or after the dates I’ve listed, go ahead and try to register. This is our chance to make a difference!

Go online right now and get this one behind you, and you can vote in November!

The Tax Cannabis 2010 people referred me a few minutes ago to a SurveyUSA poll of 500 California adults conducted in April, which found that African Americans support marijuana legalization at a higher rate (67 percent) than the population as a whole (56 percent). The overall poll had a 4.4 percentage point margin of error, presumably higher for the African-American subsample.

Elwood

“The overall poll had a 4.4 percentage point margin of error, presumably higher for the African-American subsample.”

What is the point you are trying to make? Are the blacks stoned? Are they stupid?

Explanation please.

Josh Richman

The margin of error isn’t a measure of intelligence, Elwood – it’s a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in a survey’s results. If the total population surveyed has a certain margin of error, a subset within that population will have a larger margin.

It’s long part time to confront the gross racial disparity in the enforcement of the abomination that is Cannabis prohibition. The damned law was racist in its origins and is absolutely to be repudiated. The law is immoral; repeal it. Yesterday.